"Confound you, Jack, hold your tongue," roars out Kew. Clive runs for a
chair, and a dozen were forthcoming. Florac skips back with a glass of
water. Belsize runs towards the awakening girl: and the father, for an
instant losing all patience and self-command, trembling in every limb,
lifts his stick, and says again, "Leave her, you ruffian." "Lady Clara
has fainted again, sir," says Captain Belsize. "I am staying at the Hotel
de France. If you touch me, old man" (this in a very low voice), "by
Heaven I shall kill you. I wish you good morning;" and taking a last long
look at the lifeless girl, he lifts his hat and walks away. Lord Dorking
mechanically takes his hat off, and stands stupidly gazing after him. He
beckoned Clive to follow him, and a crowd of the frequenters of the place
are by this time closed round the fainting young lady.
Here was a pretty incident in the Congress of Baden!
CHAPTER XXIX
In which Barnes comes a-wooing
Ethel had all along known that her holiday was to be a short one, and
that, her papa and Barnes arrived, there was to be no more laughing and
fun and sketching and walking with Clive; so she took the sunshine while
it lasted, determined to bear with a stout heart the bad weather.
Pages:
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697